{"id":76842,"date":"2025-08-29T14:00:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-29T18:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/?p=76842"},"modified":"2025-09-16T21:38:33","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T01:38:33","slug":"pre-snap-preview-washington-colorado-state","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/2025\/08\/29\/pre-snap-preview-washington-colorado-state\/","title":{"rendered":"Pre-Snap Preview: Washington vs. Colorado State"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s \u2018Big Ten After Dark\u2019 in the season opener on Saturday evening for the Washington Huskies, reminiscent of its days in the Pac-12. The Colorado State Rams are in town after a season ago, they finished tied for second in their league. \u201cColorado State is a very good team, very well coached,\u201d Jedd Fisch said this week. \u201cProbably one of the better programs, better teams, in the Mountain West. And Coach Norvell, I have a lot of respect for.\u201d The Rams bring with them one of the most experienced quarterbacks in the Mountain West. He\u2019ll be a third-year starter this season. Much of the team\u2019s success begins with this guy, whom Norvell calls the face of Colorado State Football.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington, Colorado State Preview<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Third-Year Starting Quarterback<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Brayden Fowler-Nicolosi<\/a> brings 887 career passing attempts into his senior season in Fort Collins. Last year, he accounted for over 2,700 passing yards, 14 touchdowns, and nine interceptions in what was a more run-heavy offense than it plans to be in 2025. The Rams will look to open up the offense this season, placing their trust in Fowler-Nicolosi under center. The senior quarterback has four years of experience in Norvell\u2019s offense, earning him confidence from the coaching staff to change plays at the line and make adjustments where he sees fit.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI remember recruiting him in 2022 [at Arizona],\u201d Fisch said. \u201cSo, certainly familiar with him coming out of high school.\u201d Fowler-Nicolosi has made 25 starts in his four-year career with the Rams, and Fisch spoke to the significance of that. \u201cThere\u2019s something to be said about experience, there\u2019s no question about it. Especially at the quarterback position.\u201d The Husky head coach referred to how confident he feels about Demond Williams Jr. as Washington\u2019s starting quarterback having just two career starts. A quarterback with 25 starts and 28 games played is noteworthy in what it can do for an offense.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c[Fowler-Nicolosi] is a good quarterback,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cAnd Coach Walters and the defensive staff<\/a> have been talking a lot about all the things that he can do.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Potential Matchup Mismatch<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Colorado State tight ends Jaxxon Warren<\/a> and Rocky Beers<\/a> present a possible mismatch for Washington\u2019s coverage unit on Saturday. Warren is listed at 6\u2019-8\u201d and Beers stands at 6\u2019-5\u201d. On the other side, likely covering tight ends, are Leroy Bryant at nickel<\/a> and linebackers Buddah Al-Uqdah<\/a> and Deven Bryant<\/a>. All three are right around the 6\u2019-0\u201d mark.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cThe hardest thing in football is to replicate personnel,\u201d Fisch said at his Thursday press conference. \u201cIt\u2019s easier in practice to be able to give them looks of scheme. It\u2019s much harder to try to say, \u2018Hey this is how you defend a guy that you don\u2019t have that same body type of frame\u2019.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

But Washington does have a tight end who can simulate the size of Colorado State\u2019s pass-catchers. \u201c[Our players have] some experience going against Quinten Moore<\/a> in training camp\u2026going against Keleki Latu a year ago, another big-bodied tight end. We can show [our players] some of the things that he did,\u201d Fisch said. Moore is 6\u2019-5\u201d and 260 pounds, and Latu was 6\u2019-7\u201d at the position last year. Though there might be a height mismatch in coverage, this Husky secondary is not unfamiliar with guarding big-bodied tight ends. \u201cOur secondary feels very prepared for this game,\u201d Fisch concluded.<\/span><\/p>\n

Defensive Attrition<\/strong><\/h3>\n

The biggest question mark for the Rams this season is going to be their defense. New coordinator Tyson Summers spent the last two seasons at Western Kentucky. \u201cI watched [Summers] at Western Kentucky last year,\u201d Fisch said on Thursday. [I] know what he did at Colorado\u2026We know we got our work cut out for us.\u201d Summers\u2019 defense allowed an average of 25.5 points per game during his two seasons with the Hilltoppers.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In terms of personnel, the Rams return just one starter from last season. Defensive end Mukendi Wa-Kalonji<\/a> has played over 1,000 career snaps and is back after a season with 5.5 tackles for loss and 2.5 sacks. Otherwise, there are a lot of new pieces that have had the Husky coaching staff evaluating players at several past stops. \u201cA lot of the guys that we\u2019ve looked at, we\u2019ve looked at in different uniforms.\u201d Fisch said.<\/span><\/p>\n

One of those new arrivals is Baylor transfer JaQues Evans<\/a>. He hopes to return to his high-powered form that he displayed at Western Kentucky in 2022, playing for Summers. Before transferring to Baylor, Evans notched team-highs in tackles (106), tackles for loss (14), and sacks (nine) during that 2022 season. Injury limited his 2023 campaign, and he only played three games at Baylor last year. Colorado State plans for him to be their game-wrecker on the EDGE this season. He\u2019ll test the Husky offensive line right away in game one.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Establishing Rhythm Early<\/strong><\/h3>\n

For Washington to establish rhythm early in the contest on Saturday, Fisch said it needs to simply execute and keep every play positive. \u201cNot go behind the chains, not have penalties that can knock us back into \u2018get back on track\u2019 situations, [and] not take sacks that would put us in a negative yardage situation.\u201d Ending every drive with a kick, whether it be a field goal, an extra point, or a punt, is something Fisch wants to see on Saturday. \u201cA one-yard run or a one-yard completion is better than going backwards, that\u2019s how you stay in rhythm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Washington\u2019s offensive line will be tested with the physical presence of the aforementioned Evans and Wa-Kalonji up front. Without having seen what the Rams look like in 2025, their front seven will likely be the strength of the defense. As such, it will be important for Williams and the Husky offense to spread the football out early to help the offensive line settle in. Establishing rhythm and getting Colorado State on its heels with the versatility of the Husky run game and receiver threats out wide is how Washington can build an advantage on Saturday.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cFirst game of a college football season, you don’t know what it’s gonna look like,\u201d Fisch said. \u201cOur goal is to get into some rhythm.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Final Score Prediction<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Washington – 38<\/span><\/p>\n

Colorado State – 14<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s \u2018Big Ten After Dark\u2019 in the season opener on Saturday evening for the Washington Huskies, reminiscent of its days in the Pac-12. The Colorado State Rams are in town after a season ago, they finished tied for second in their league. \u201cColorado State is a very good team, very well coached,\u201d Jedd Fisch said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3944,"featured_media":70015,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5,2,17,35612],"tags":[35498,1268,33155,3498,1666,5862,509],"class_list":["post-76842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bigten","category-featured","category-news","category-washington-huskies","tag-colorado-state-football","tag-colorado-state-rams","tag-demond-williams-jr","tag-jay-norvell","tag-jedd-fisch","tag-mountain-west-football","tag-washington-huskies"],"modified_by":"Michael Kovacs, ADMIN","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3944"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76842"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76849,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76842\/revisions\/76849"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/70015"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/collegefootball\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}